A Māori delegation will arrive in the UK this week to discuss the retrieval of carvings that have been at a stately home in Surrey for the past 130 years.
Forty-eight descendants of Hinemihi, who is embodied in the carvings of the Māori meeting house, will eventually bring new carvings in exchange under an agreement reached in 2019.
Hinemihi, one of the oldest surviving Māori meeting houses in the world, was built in 1880 in Te Wairoa, New Zealand.
In 1892, William Hillier, the 4th Earl of Onslow, bought the carvings for £50 as a souvenir from his term as governor of New Zealand. The sale was agreed by Mika, the son of Chief Aporo, who commissioned the building, and the carvings were shipped to Clandon Park, the 18th-century home of the Onslow family near Guildford, Surrey.
Clandon Park was handed to the National Trust in 1956. In a statement, the trust said it was “delighted to welcome visitors from the Ngā Kohinga Whakairo o Hinemihi Trust in Aotearoa (New Zealand) this week”.
The proposed exchange of historical carvings for new work comes amid growing acceptance by cultural, historical and religious bodies that items acquired – whether legitimately or not – and brought to the UK during Britain’s colonial era should now be returned.
Last month, the Horniman Museum in London said it would return 72 artefacts, including 12 brass plaques known as Benin bronzes, looted from Benin City by British soldiers in 1897, to the Nigerian government. But the British Museum has resisted calls to return about 900 Benin items it holds, or to hand the Parthenon marbles back to Greece.
Heeni Brown, a member of the Māori delegation heading to the UK, said the Hinemihi carvings were a vital part of New Zealand history and held huge significance.
“When it comes to Himemihi, the carvers of that era are some of the last who used traditional practices,” she said, according to Radio New Zealand.
The community believes the meeting house carvings are a living embodiment of their honoured ancestor. The Hinemihi meeting house is addressed as “she”, and is part of the history of her tribe.
The carvings were made by Wero Taroi and Tene Waitere, now regarded as being among the great Māori carvers, in local totara wood. A few years after the meeting house was created, a volcanic eruption devastated the region, killing 153 people. Some of the tribe sheltered inside Hinemihi and were the only ones to survive.
In November 2019, the trust announced that it had agreed in principle with Heritage New Zealand for the carvings to return to New Zealand in exchange for new carvings.
John Orna-Ornstein, the trust’s director of culture and engagement, said at the time that the Māori community had been consulted. “Hinemihi is unique and we recognise the deep spiritual relationship between our Māori partners and the historic carvings of their honoured ancestor.”
But, he added, the process would be long. “Hinemihi has listed building status and the relevant UK authorities need to give consent. We are also seeking the formal assistance of the Charity Commission.”
On Sunday, the trust said: “The new carvings will form a new Māori meeting house, created specially for Clandon, to continue the tradition of a living meeting house in the grounds of Clandon Park.
“It will serve the UK-based Māori, Pasifika and New Zealand communities as a meeting place for cultural and social events and offer trust members and Clandon communities a vibrant place to learn about Māori culture.”
“The new carvings will be created by master carvers and descendants of those who carved the original meeting house.”
